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Apogee Duet Noise: The $2 Solution To A $500 Problem

If you don't know what an Apogee Duet is, you can ignore this post. On the other hand... if, like myself, you've been suffering from a soft fax-machine type of hiss or noise from your Duet, you might find yourself amazed by this $2 quick fix.

I bought myself an Apogee Duet two months ago. The Duet is an amazing audio interface for Macs. It costs $500, which might sound like a lot for just a metal volume knob with a pair of inputs and outputs, but the sound you'll get from this thing easily outperforms anything else in its price range and rivals D/A converters costing more than three times as much.

The very first thing I noticed when I plugged in the Duet was that everything sounded... bigger, fuller, deeper, wider... better. Music was more fun to listen to, and I could hear things in the music I've owned for years that I'd never heard before.

Wow!

The second thing I noticed was... "What the heck is that?" It wasn't a hiss. It sounded more like a fax-machine or an old modem, maybe? It was a soft noise coming from my speakers, and it was there at a consistent volume regardless of how loud I turned up or down the volume on my Duet. It bugged me enough that I considered returning the Duet... but when I unplugged it and reverted back to my Mbox2, everything sounded flat, dull and lifeless by comparison. Sure, the noise was gone, but so was so much of the music.

"Awwwwwwe CRAP!"

An evening of Google searching proved that I'd tried just about everything everyone else had tried to fix this issue... and like everyone else, I was coming up empty. In the process of plugging and unplugging, wiring and rewiring, I'd made a mess.

Time to clean up.

And that's when it happened. I unplugged my monitor and the noise disappeared. "What the heck?" Plug it in... there's noise. Unplug it again... it's gone. "Hello ground loop!" Here's the $2 fix: I plugged my cheap computer monitor into a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter, and then into the beefy surge protector I'd previously had it plugged into.

Problem solved!

Two closing notes: Keyboard volume keys and the breakout cable.

I love my Duet, but I've been annoyed at how the volume keys on my keyboard don't work especially well with it. One touch of a keyboard volume key equals five clicks on a Duet. That's awful. Well, I found a way to have the keyboard volume keys match the sensitivity of the Duet, and I posted a step by step how-to here. It makes a huge difference!

Finally, if the Duet's breakout cable really bugs you, there is an upgrade option. Check out The Duet Breakout Box.

David K said:

You can't be serious. I've tried everything to get rid of the soft crackles from my Duet and accomplished nothing but a waste of my time. Your $2 solution cost me nothing as I had a few of those adapters lying around. The hiss is gone. THANK YOU.

::::: | Posted January 5, 2010 10:12 AM

Sven Otto said:

Thank You very much for your hint.
Now i have to solve the problem with european prongs. We already have 2-prong plugs.
Bye

::::: | Posted January 5, 2010 3:56 PM

mb-de said:

Gents,

I'd be mighty careful with this suggestion.

Your breaking the groundloop mechanism interrupts the Protective Earth connection of the device you use the adapter on.

Should this device develop an internal isolation fault, your life may be at risk because the grould connection across the signal wiring may have too high an impedance, allowing dangerous voltages to develop across your kit...

Just my two cents

mb-de
===
PS: Never encountered the described buzz problem - but then, I am using proper transformer-based ground loop breakers on inputs and outputs...

::::: | Posted February 9, 2010 10:47 AM

Christophe said:

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

::::: | Posted February 10, 2010 8:37 AM

Rob said:

mb-de said: "Never encountered the described buzz problem - but then, I am using proper transformer-based ground loop breakers on inputs and outputs..."

As was I. And yet, there was hiss. For the life of me, I can't figure out what causes it or why I only had the issue with my Duet. Or, maybe it's a case of the Duet being the only thing that reacted in a way I could hear? Maybe I've had this problem forever but only became aware of it when I bought a Duet? I don't know.

I do know that everything I own is plugged into various surge protectors, but, for example, it made no difference which surge protector my monitor was plugged into.

My laser printer also caused my Duet to hiss, but I sold that a while ago and my new printer has no such issues. Hopefully, when I replace my monitor, I won't need these adapters anymore.

Interestingly, this solution has solved Duet hiss for many people, yet Apogee seems unaware of it (the problem and solution, I mean, not my post).

::::: | Posted February 10, 2010 10:43 AM